Warner Bros. TV is making another move to halt the legal battle surrounding *The Pitt* and whether the Noah Wyle–starring, Emmy-winning medical drama is a rip-off of *ER* from proceeding to trial.
The estate of Michael Crichton—the creator behind *ER*, *Jurassic Park*, *Westworld*, *Twister*, and *The Andromeda Strain*—has claimed that the Pittsburgh, PA–set series emerged from the ashes of failed negotiations to reboot the 15-season NBC medical hit. From the outset, Warner Bros. Television (WBTV) and the other defendants have insisted that the January 2025 premiering *The Pitt* is an entirely original project. They maintain it is simply a case of creatives moving forward after the *ER* reboot talks fell apart, mainly due to financial disagreements with the estate.
In February, WBTV, Noah Wyle, creator R. Scott Gemmill, and the rest of the team faced a setback when Los Angeles Superior Court (LASC) Judge Wendy Chang ruled against the defendants’ anti-SLAPP motion. “Under anti-SLAPP standards, the Court cannot find Plaintiffs’ claims to be totally meritless,” she wrote, paving the way for what could become a messy legal trial.
This week, as Warner Bros. Discovery faces a formal sale process, *The Pitt*’s creative team sought to “stop the bleeding,” so to speak, by filing a nearly 70-page appeal brief. The filing states, “This lawsuit is an effort to prohibit lifelong artists—the writers, producers, and actor named as Defendants—from exhibiting a groundbreaking and Emmy-award-winning TV series that speaks directly about some of today’s most pressing issues.”
The brief argues the lawsuit is baseless: “*The Pitt* is no more a ‘derivative work’ of *ER* than is any other hospital drama.” It highlights the distinct differences between the two shows: different characters, plots, themes, settings, and storytelling approaches. Specifically, *The Pitt* features episodes unfolding in real time over a single hour, whereas *ER*’s 45-minute episodes covered at least an entire day-long hospital shift. The only similarities between the shows are that both are medical dramas set in emergency departments (like many others), and both feature actor Noah Wyle—playing different characters in each.
WBTV’s legal team, led by Ted Boutrous Jr. of Gibson Dunn, has also presented constitutional arguments to California’s Second Appellate District, Division 3. They contend that the case raises significant issues of creativity and free expression. The appeal filing states, “Plaintiff argued *The Pitt* was derivative of *ER* because it shared ideas with the reboot script treatment—such as episodes transpiring in real-time and addressing the aftermath of COVID. But these concepts did not come from *ER*—they were new ideas proposed by Defendant R. Scott Gemmill in a reboot treatment created over a decade after *ER* last aired.”
The filing further emphasizes, “There is no legal reason why he would not have been free to incorporate those same original ideas into a different project, *The Pitt*, after the proposed reboot fell through.”
A striking declaration in the appeal adds, “Plaintiff’s attempt to use a narrow contract term to seize control over any emergency medical drama Defendants might work on is an outright assault on free expression, and a terrible precedent for California’s film and television industry. If this suit is not dismissed pursuant to Defendants’ anti-SLAPP motion, *The Pitt*’s creative team will be forced to do their work under the threat of liability and with the constant distraction and expense of litigation and discovery.”
When contacted by Deadline, Robert Klieger, attorney for the Crichton Trust from Hueston Hennigan, downplayed the appeal, saying, “There is nothing new from Warner Bros. in this filing. Instead, it’s just a rehash of arguments the trial court has already soundly rejected.”
While *The Pitt*’s second season debut has been set, no dates have yet been scheduled for either the trial or the appeal hearing.
—
*The ongoing dispute underscores the complex intersection of intellectual property rights and creative freedom in Hollywood, especially when it involves legacy properties and their reimagining for modern audiences.*
https://deadline.com/2025/10/the-pitt-lawsuit-er-crichton-appeal-1236601740/